"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

CELAC 2014: What would José Martí do?

"I am especially pleased to be visiting Cuba as you mark the anniversary of the great Cuban and Latin American hero, José Martí." - Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, January 27, 2014

To witness a crime in silence is to commit it. - José Martí

CELAC is underway today in Havana, Cuba on the birthday of José Martí and it is taking place in the midst of a nationwide crackdown on nonviolent dissidents. Furthermore, Gabriel Salvia, an Argentine national was stopped at the airport upon his arrival in Cuba and declared "persona non grata." He had planned to attend a parallel summit organized by dissidents. The main organizer of the gathering Cuesta Morua has been detained since Sunday and held by the political police.Dozens of other activists have been detained and others have had their homes laid siege and are effectively under house arrest.

From Cuba, the opposition activist Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina tweeted blindly: "The day of Marti for Cubans ends up an affront to the wave of repression unleashed by the regime against the peaceful resistance."

Unfortunately, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, met with the oppressors and praised them for their work on violence against women.

Cuba is a leader on many development issues, including expanding
opportunity for women and girls. It has battled stereotypes and worked
through its institutions to advance equality and prevent and end all
forms of violence. [...] Since this threat is rooted in discrimination, impunity and
complacency, we need to change attitudes and behavior – and we need to
change laws and make sure they are enforced just like you are doing in
Cuba.

The Secretary General is ignoring
the well documented regular beatings visited on Cuban women who dissent
from the official government line such as the Ladies in White and the
Rosa Parks Women's Movement. On July 9, 2013 two dissident Cuban attorneys, Yaremis Flores and Laritza Diversent presented their report to Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, as it examined Cuba, that touches on the institutional violence against women:

The brutalityof the policeandstate security agents, including women members of these bodies, against womendissidents, is supported by thestate, whichexemplifies theinstitutionalized violenceas a meansto represswomen opposition activists. Arbitrary detentionis one of themethods toprevent them from exercisingtheir rightsto speak, associate anddemonstrate.Indetention centersagents useviolence,sexualassault andinsultsas means ofrepression.Thecellsenclosed inunsanitaryand sometimes sanitary serviceshave no privacy orarenotappropriate for women, even having them share prison cellswith men. In some cases,they forcedto stripnakedorforcibly stripped,obliging them tosquat tosee if they haveitemsin theirgenitals andclaims thathave been reported that theyhaveintroduceda peninto the vagina, under the justificationofseekingrecording objects.The governmentorganizes inworkplacesthe so called Rapid ResponseBrigades(BRR) to suppress evenwith theuse of violencewomendissidents.It is theabsolutegovernment inactionregardingthose involvedinralliesof repudiationagainst the Ladies inWhiteand other womenopposition activists, acts againstthe public order, groupsthat gather topromotehatredagainst opponentsof the government andadvocate forsocialist revolution, to which are addedthe mediawithsmear campaignsagainst these women, who have no opportunityto exercise theirright to reply.

This is not the vision of Cuba José Martí had in mind when he fought for Cuban independence over a century ago. In his work "Nuestra América" he warned against the rise of caudillo governments in Latin America that would perpetuate autocratic regimes in Latin America. Nor is the passive and silent acquiescence of international figures and Latin American leaders before massive human rights violations and a decades old tyranny perversely called a democracy the vision that the Cuban national hero had of Latin American unity.

José Julián Martí Pérez was born in Cuba 161 years ago today on January 28, 1853. Fifty five years into a Stalinist dictatorship installed by the Castro brothers. Ironically, the Castros, who claim José Julián Martí as a revolutionary inspiration, are sons of a Spanish peninsular who came to Cuba to fight to preserve colonial rule, and later became a rich landowner. If José Martí had been born and grown up under the Castro regime then he'd either be a martyr, such as Pedro Luis Boitel or Orlando Zapata Tamayo who died on hunger strike defending human dignity or an opposition leader murdered under suspicious circumstances such as Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas or Laura Inés Pollán. José Martí with his passion for freedom, justice and human dignity
would have been a dissident protesting the totalitarian regime in Cuba.
As a writer, poet, and orator who could appeal to large numbers of
people who would have been perceived by the Castro brothers as a threat.

His vision of the Cuba and the Americas he wanted to see and the critique of the CELAC Summit that he would have made are reflected in the words of Yoani Sanchez: An important challenge for the CELAC Summit is that respect for diversity not be "tolerance for authoritarians or human rights violations."

He would not remain silent. José Martí understood the importance of speaking out and the complicity of remaining silent before a crime. Amnesty International condemned the ongoing crackdown against nonviolent activists, including many women, by the Cuban government and called on the UN Secretary General and other dignitaries to address it:

It is outrageous that those who disagree with the Cuban government are not allowed to express themselves in a public and collective manner. The heads of state of the CELAC member countries and the high officials of regional and international organizations, such as UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, should not ignore the fact that as they arrive in Havana to participate in the summit, Cuban activists are being repressed by their government.

Like
Amnesty International Martí would've called on leaders to hold tyrants and
dictators accountable and to make them uncomfortable in their
repression. Instead UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon failed to address the crackdown publicly but instead met with Raul Castro to discuss in part how the US embargo impacts on human rights in Cuba and later his daughter, Mariela, where he celebrated the regime's treatment of women and finally met with Fidel Castro for 55 minutes. Its enough, that if he were alive, it would bring José Martí to tears.